We had a great visit to New York! I really like it there so much. The area where we will live is just wonderful. There is so much nature and trails! I can't wait to take my dogs for walks. It's cold, but not much colder than where we are in Tennessee. And somehow, when there is snow on the ground and everything looks beautiful, the cold feels more brisk and refreshing than when there is no snow and no chance of snow!
We are getting the house I wanted! So exciting and, yes, it has a pool! My counselor said that would be so good for me. It's not a pool big enough to do laps in it, like one of the others. But big enough to enjoy and play in! And it will look so beautiful and, best of all, I won't have to take care of it!
My husband worked out with the Board about the total amount to be spent on the house, furnishing it, and putting up a fence. I think I will be able to bring it in for less than they have budgeted. I'm petty good at interior design, so I don't feel like I will need to hire someone. And I don't feel the need to buy top quality furniture. It seems like Ethan Allen sofas run about $1000 more than a sofa from, say, Haverty's. So my plan is to use good quality, mid-priced, basic furniture pieces, and then use designer fabrics for the draperies, accent pillows and occasional chairs. Custom-made draperies cost sooooo much! I could sew them myself, but I'm NOT going to!
I like for a home to have a color scheme that flows throughout it. I think I'm going to go with an extremely pale yellow on the walls with white trim, and then use tones of spring green and pink-to-rose tones. What is that big, famous hotel in Seattle? I'm on a plane right now so I can't look it up. The Fairmont? I think that's it. These are the colors they use in their rooms and it is so uplifting and bright and cheerful!
The downstairs rooms include a large entry foyer, formal living, formal dining, sun room, study, kitchen, powder room, small family room, breakfast room, and laundry. Plenty of room to play with those colors. I've seen a breakfast room on pinterest and houzz that I LOVE that is done in green and white. The only problem us that I also love a pink, aqua, gray, and white color scheme. No way to really combine the two, but maybe I can use those upstairs.
Lots of work to get done. I know a good seamstress here and I may get her to make the drapes. I imagine she will cost less than someone there.
My husband has also not given up getting me household help through the college, which I appreciate. He said he talked to the operations officer that, without a housekeeper, it tied me down to the house to admit caterers, florists, maintenance workers, etc. and that it's not right for me to be tied down like that. I like this reasoning! It, frankly, hadn't occurred to me. The general practice is that all I SHOULD have to do is get dressed and walk downstairs in time for the event! So, we'll see what happens. My husband very much wants me working less, much less, than I am now so I can focus on regaining health.
I had an interesting experience at LaGuardia. There was a real cute Jewish family going through security when we were. I chatted playfully with their adorable little boy and then went my way. Later, though, we were in the terminal and a seat opened up by me, and this young woman came and sat down by me. We started chatting and I was playing with their little boy. And the two of us wound up having a wonderful heart-to-heart conversation! Never met before and will never meet again I imagine. But we wound up somehow sharing some of our deepest pains! She was divorced from a man who seriously abused her, and had married a widower. They both had children from their previous marriages and then this little sweet boy. Some of the friends of her husband's wife were very unkind to her, even though she was mothering their friend's children and taking care of her husband. I told her about an awful experience I had had in a church some years ago, not in Tennessee, that had hurt me terribly. She told me, with some embarrassment, that she had been given this strange treatment called EMDR! I started laughing and told her that I had had it, too. So, that was neat. Maybe I will meet them again, they live in New York City which is only ... well, it's smaller than the size of Texas anyway!
So, tomorrow begins Round Two of trying to straighten out my entire, dysfunctional life and gain physical health in the remaining, what, 107 days?! Who's betting on me???
Cheers!
Lisa
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